Fresh

Heartbeat Inspires Whitney Logo

New York NY

A new identity for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is based on the concept of a “responsive W”. Set to move into a new building designed by Renzo Piano, the Museum tapped Experimental Jetset to develop an identity which it describes as showing a pulse ‒ “the heartbeat of New York” ‒ as well as representing the Whitney’s famed non-linear approach to art history. The Dutch design studio came up with the idea of a “W” which can fit into the space left behind when images of certain artworks are represented on printed matter. “The image we had in our heads was pretty much that of a carpenter’s folding ruler,” they say. “The letter W as a set of four sticks or rods that can be folded or unfolded to fit any context.” The imagery, which uses Neue Haas Grotesk (“NHG has a sharpness that is typical for NYC”), has been handed over to the Whitney inhouse design team who will work on print applications, while Linked by Air creates the website and Entro the signage.www.whitney.org

Traditional Tableware to Luxury Lifestyle Brand

London England

BuroCreative was tasked with repositioning Wedgwood, the iconic ceramics company founded by Josiah Wedgwood in 1759, as less a traditional tableware producer to a current English luxury lifestyle brand. Placing emphasis on Wedgwood’s unique English heritage to appeal to a new target market, the first execution is a global advertising campaign which focuses on the idea of the “House of Wedgwood.” Photographer Rebecca Miller shot old and new product lines in an 18th century manor house Barlaston Hall on the Wedgwood Estate. Roly Grant, Creative Director at BuroCreative, explains: “We wanted to apply a more highend fashion-led approach and accentuate and celebrate Wedgwood’s Englishness. Many brands would love to have the heritage that Wedgwood has.” Adds the client’s Global Brand Manager Anne-Catherine Verwaerde: “We needed to rejuvenate and widen the brand’s appeal to capture the attention of our new identified target consumer - the Style Conscious Woman.” New product lines and an e-commerce site are part of the rebrand.www.burocreative.co.uk

Mall of America is a Star

Minneapolis MN

Now twenty years old, the nation’s largest shopping and entertainment center is using design to convey its broad range of offerings for its wide array of guests. Mall of America partnered with Duffy & Partners, the high-end Minneapolis design firm, to develop a new image. The creative process recognized the equity found in the star of the original logo, and transformed it into a more dynamic star made of vibrant colored ribbons. When animated, the flowing ribbons streak across the screen to create the star shape. Joe Duffy, Creative Director, notes that the logo will interactively utilize colors, such as pink for Susan G. Komen events, silver and gold for the holiday season, and red, white and blue for Independence Day. The ribbons, also a nod to the ribbons of the retired Mall of America logo, are said to represent the Mall’s constant change ‒ a tagline reads “Always New” ‒ as well as to reflect the literal act of gift-giving. “Mall of America is never static,” says Maureen Bausch, Mall of America Executive Vice President of Business Development. “Therefore, we are moving away from a static logo and incorporating a dynamic colorful design, making use of innovative digital media.”www.duffy.com

Cheap and Healthy in a Snap

Dallas TX

Dallas-based advertising agency Firehouse has launched the SNAP Program for Dallas Farmers Market Friends. When it comes to food, lower income Dallas families often have to resort to whatever is cheapest. Through this program, the agency is helping raise awareness among lower income residents that some of the city’s freshest, healthiest and most affordable produce can be found at the Dallas Farmers Market. And the campaign lets residents know that they can now use their Lone Star EBT card and SNAP food benefits to purchase these fresh fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers. Imagery replaces popular junk foods with healthy alternatives. Creative credits to Executive Creative Director Tripp Westbrook, Associate Creative Director/Copywriter Greg Hunter, Art Director Ryan Smith, and Illustrator Richard Thompson.www.firehouseagency.com

Scher, TED and More Honored by Cooper-Hewitt

New York NY

Paula Scher will be presented the National Design Award in Communication Design at a gala dinner in October in New York. First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the awards promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s awards program, organized by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which also includes a week of public education programs and workshops. Scher needs no introduction: for four decades, she has been at the forefront of graphic design, especially known for her reimagining of typography as a communicative medium. She has been a principal in the New York office of Pentagram since 1991, and has developed identity and branding systems, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs for a broad range of clients that include Bloomberg, Citibank, Microsoft, MoMA, the Public Theater, the High Line, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Honorees in other design disciplines include NewDealDesign for Product Design, Aidlin Darling for Interior Design, Local Projects for Interaction Design, and the ubiquitous TED Talks for Corporate and Institutional Achievement.www.cooperhewitt.org/national-design-awards/2013-winners

Fashion-Forward Cleaning

New York NY

Casabella, which prides itself on marrying design with function in the cleaning products industry, has partnered with Jeannie Joshi of Joshi Design to introduce bold graphic patterns for kitchen products including sponges, cloths, mops and brooms. The New York-based pattern designer created a “fashion-forward” pattern. The past two seasons Casabella featured a Keith Haring licensed design. This time around, Joshi was asked to explore trends in fashion, art and culture, which she combined with photography and illustration to develop a mood/trend board with options for patterns that randomly repeat. Creative Director Debra Kayton and the Casabella team selected a striped pattern for its movement and style, and dubbed it “The Artist Collection.” Says Joshi: “Saturated, high-spectrum/HD colors will appeal to millennials as well as other demographic groups. While these patterns are a big trend in beauty packaging, Casabella was smart to capitalize on this for their niche.”www. casabella.com

Studio of the Future

New York NY

The nature of a design studio as a collaborative organism is its ability to adapt to new dynamics in client needs and design disciplines. To help leverage new possibilities and address future challenges, AIGA and Adobe are teaming to present “Defining the Studio of 2015,” a series that asks design leaders to envision how their studios will evolve over the next few years. In essays, Q&As, slideshows and videos, the series features designers sharing plans and aspirations in relation to topics such as collaboration, positioning, technology, design thinking, co-creation and multidisciplinary work. Stories will be published throughout the year, but the “Defining the Studio of 2015” series already includes contributions by the likes of Susana Rodríguez de Tembleque of SYPartners; Michael Lebowitz of Brooklyn agency Big Spaceship; and an interview with Jake Barton of Local Projects. “AIGA and Adobe undertook a major research effort to define the Designers of 2015, which led to recommendations on curriculum reform and highlighted the profession’s need for deep collaborative practices,” states Richard Grefé, AIGA Executive Director. “This is the next stage in that exploration: How are leaders changing their organizational structures and expectations of a team to meet new demands for designers?” Adds Scott Morris, Senior Marketing Director for Creative Cloud at Adobe: “As our world becomes more connected and mobile, we see the creative process going through dramatic changes. As the world changes, so must the workflows, tools and services we use to create. This series will hopefully inspire designers to embrace this trend and adapt for the future.”www.aiga.org/studio-of-2015/